I am not in love with the color saturation, or the crop, and I agree with Yod on the eye focus. Also I think I would have gone vertical in this case. Otherwise I love macaws, and I think this is a pretty good and detailed photo of one. In this photo you have done a great thing. You have captured a bit of the personality that makes these birds so charming.
John Cowan
Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut.
~Ernest Hemingway~
I like this photo. I'll have to disagree with the comments on cropping. The bird has his head cocked forward so any cropping to include both the shoulder and beak would have to be about as wide as it presently is. If there was more body available in the original shot to allow a vertical crop, the face would be a smaller image in the final product. The central point of intertest (the eye) is right where it should be. To position it properly in a vertical crop whould shrink the face even more. I think the cropping is right on.
Thanks for the comment guys...I like to know what others think of my images.
Yod, I know the eye is a little soft, just getting to know my camera at this stage and using auto focus, I now know how to use specific focal point in the camera so hopfully sharpnes where it counts will be there as I progress.
Almo I wanted to show the detail of the head while also showing the colour of this magnificent bird. Wposloski has explained the reason for the landscape crop very well. I placed the eye using the rule of thirds as I understand it??? The colours are pretty well as seen on the day, the pair of free flying macaws at the Adelaide zoo are truly supurb.
Wposloski thanks for your explaination on my crop of this image, very well written. I have infact images showing the full view of the birds and because of the length of their tale their head detail is somewhat deminished. I will post in my gallery for comparison.
